News Release

April 01, 20052005 Excellence in Teaching Award

Southwestern is pleased to announce that Professor J. Kelly Strader has been selected to receive the 2005 Excellence in Teaching Award. The faculty created an annual Excellence in Teaching Award in 1997 to promote, encourage and support the interests of Southwestern faculty in teaching and to recognize distinguished achievement in the performance of the teaching mission by members of the faculty.

The Excellence in Teaching Award is based upon student and faculty nominations which provide written documentation that addresses stated criteria for excellence. While there is no single checklist for measuring such excellence, the stated criteria include: effects on student learning in the classroom, effects on student motivation and effects on learning outside the classroom. The Faculty Development Committee administers the process of publicizing the award, soliciting nominations, as well as reviewing and screening the nominations for submission to the Dean who is responsible for making the final selection.

The documentation that supported Professor Strader's nomination described the excellence of his teaching methods in a somewhat unorthodox manner – in the form of a slide show. It contained the following: